Willamette Weekend: 16 Things to Do and See in Portland this Weekend

[THEATER] Syrian playwright and activist Mohammad Al-Attaris not allowed to leave the country, but he’ll Skype in for discussions with peace activists and audiences after A Chance Encounter, his inflammatory political play that follows a simple moment on one Beirut corner all the way to revolution. The Arab American Cultural Center and World Affairs Council back PSU’s staging, which stars Artists Rep regular John San Nicholas, most recently on stage as a terrorist jailer in The Invisible Hand. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., 725-3307. 7:30 pm Friday. $15-$20.

[THEATER + WINE] Wine helps the imagination, so it’s lucky Sip D’Vine is well stocked as it hosts readings of local playwrights’ work. This iteration of Pulp Gulp Theater is an hour of steampunk, vampire lairs, massive bugs and time traveling: basically every episode of Doctor Who, but with more pinot. Sip D’Vine, 7887 SW Capitol Highway, 977-9463. 8 pm Friday, April 10. $5-$10. All ages.

[PSYCHEDELIC POP] As the Minders rally the troops to mount a late 2015 band relaunch and new album release, frontman Martyn Leaper recently took steps to ensure that the band’s full catalog is finally available on that ol’ godforsaken Internet, giving casual fans (who may know the Minders only as a footnote of the Elephant 6 Collective) a more complete map of what ground the underrated outfit has covered in its first 20 years. Last year’s terrifyingly infectious “It’s Gonna Break Out” single, though, with its whistle harmonies and swelling string section, might just be a better indicator of where the Minders are headed in the project’s third decade. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 894-9708. 9:30 pm. $7. 21+.

[SEXY STORYTELLING] Amateurs of various predilections, porn superstars and sex-toy mavens will tell you all about their first times and fetish mishaps at this adult story time. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 7 pm. $18. 21+.

[LOCAL FILMS] It’s rare you get a scrappy, DIY experience in Portland cinema. Tonight, locals get big screen space to show their stuff. Think of them as video ’zines, and thrive on the energy of creation. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. 4 pm.

[DANCE] Local contemporary group Trip the Dark kicks off its fifth season with its take on a story familiar to most: the story of Johnny needing a new dance partner, and how nobody puts Baby in a corner. The company promises to add “everything you didn’t know it was missing” to the ’80s classic, including the imagination and quirky flares the group has become known for. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 286-9449. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, April 3-4 and 10-11. $15 in advance, $18 day of show. 21+.

[MYSTICAL PSYCH-POP] Where or what is Ganglion Reef? Considering it’s the name of Wand’s debut album, it’s probably a place that exists only in the band’s strange collective mind. Indicative of the kind of humor required of modern psych-pop bands, the members of Wand are evasive about creative details like origins of album titles, often offering strange, mystical, often totally nonsensical explanations. But hey, strange, mystical, nonsensical—with as much fuzzy feedback as you’d expect from signees of Ty Segall’s record label—is pretty much what the band’s all about, anyway. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

[FOOD] Olympia (née Olympic) Provisions will roll out chef Elias Cairo’s family tradition one week later than the Protestant-Catholic version. You dance, you smash the plates, you eat the loukaniko sausage, you drink the ouzo. Not in that order. The meal will be family style, like actual Easter, which means somebody’s gonna bogart the lamb with garlic sauce or the Greek spaghetti or something. Don’t worry. The Cairos will bring more. RSVP by April 10. Olympia Provisions, 1632 NW Thurman St., 894-8136. 6 pm. $60, $90 with wine pairings. Includes tip.

[THEATER] This is a relationship “pseudo thriller” from Third Rail Repertory Theatre about a yoga instructor who finds her doctor boyfriend pantsless with porn playing. CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 220-2646. 7:30 pm. 2 pm Sunday. $29.

[WEST COAST COUNTRY] For a handful of years now, Redwood Son has been quietly turning out Northwest roots rock just under the radar. Chances are good that the Portland act’s current project, a forthcoming record produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, will change things a bit. Tonight, Redwood Son plays as part of a weeklong residency, with special guests from local jam-grass band the Student Loan. If you enjoy laid-back Americana with no strings attached and tons of sticky hooks, this is your show. Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel, 303 SW 12th Ave., 972-2670. 7 pm. Free. 21+.

[THEATER] Sixteen years after the shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School, Young Professionals’ teen actors, some of whom weren’t yet born in 1999, stage its story. The drama draws together personal accounts, police reports and the shooters’ notorious journals for a heady look at the horror, putting a serious cap on Oregon Children’s Theatre’s yearlong youth mentoring program. Their other shows were an improv sketch and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. Ages 15 and older. Oregon Children’s Theatre Young Professionals Studio Theatre, 1939 NE Sandy Blvd., 228-9571. 5 pm Sunday. $15.

[BLUES] “I don’t believe we can have an army without music,” wrote Robert E. Lee, and his soldiers and his Union adversaries sought solace from Civil War carnage in song, as did the families they left behind. Satori’s intriguing program offers musical views of America’s deadliest conflict from different angles, including songs written by Southerners and Northerners, blacks and whites, war contemporaries and later (even 21st-century) writers and songwriters, including Irving Berlin and James Weldon Johnson. Some you’ll recognize—“When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” “Dixie,” “Yellow Rose of Texas”—but others commemorating victory or urging peace will be revelations to listeners a century and a half after the gunfire ceased. Central Lutheran Church, 1820 NE 21st Ave, 284-2331. 7:30 pm Saturday, April 11. $7-$15. All ages.

[COUNTRY] Prepare for a week-long part of sweat-through chambray shirts and whiskey. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 235-8771, on Sunday-Thursday, April 12-16. See rosequarter.com for complete show details.